Chapter 2:

"Harry? Can you hear me? We need to get you out of here."

The words warbled and cottoned in and out of Harry's ears. He was only vaguely conscious.

"Harry? Harry! HARRY!"

The world began too twist and turn, then it faded into black.

OoOoO

Blinking brought him back awake. He turned and soaked in white walls lined with beds and privacy curtains. Harry almost thought it was a hospital, but recognized the familiar masonry of Hogwarts.

"The hospital wing," whispered Harry softly.

"Indeed Mr. Potter. You gave your friends and I quiet a fright there," said a chuckling Dumbledore. His eyes carried that familiar twinkle that always accompanied him. Harry hated it. He wanted it, and its owner to just go away.

"What happe-, Voldemort. Where is he? What happened? Did you catch him?" asked Harry.

"No, unfortunately he got away with the Sorcerer's Stone as well," Dumbledore said sadly.

Harry internally shrieked with triumph. He had successfully stalled Dumbledore enough so that Voldemort could escape Hogwarts with the stone in tow.

"Sir, what's going to happen from here?"

"I don't know Harry. We will just have to wait and see. I have a fairly good idea on what will happen next."

"What?"

"You are much too young my boy. Unfortunately, in the coming months there will be much that is going to be revealed that I would prefer that my students not be forced to encounter," said Dumbledore.

Knowing that he wouldn't get much else from the man, Harry laid back. The spell that Voldemort hit him with to induce a makeshift act of passing out had taken a lot out of him. Harry sighed.

Dumbledore left the room, and left Harry to ponder his recent events. He agreed with Voldemort on a lot of things, but the one thing he disagreed with is his hatred of Muggleborns. Harry saw magic as a powerful tool, and all who use it should be accepted. Harry saw that purebloods were usually superior. After all, Daphne Greengrass was second in the class with two Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff behind her were all purebloods.

But, Hermione Granger was number one. She was smart and powerful, yet Voldemort's hatred encompassed her as well. Hermione was a good friend of Harry's. He didn't understand why Voldemort hated muggleborns. Sure they were born from muggles, yet they wielded magic like any other wizard.

Harry didn't quite know what to do. Hermione was an important aspect in his life. Sure she was a bitchy know-it-all, but she did it because she cared.

"Speak of the devil," Harry chuckled.

Hermione smiled at the use of the familiar phrase and replied, "And the devil shall come. How are you Harry? Are you feeling any better?"

Smiling at his friend Harry said, "Getting close."

"I can't believe it Harry. It was actually Voldemort after the stone, not Snape?"

"Actually, it was Quirrell, yet it was Voldemort. Voldemort must have possessed Quirrell's body or something. It was weird actually, Voldemort was speaking to me, yet Quirrell's mouth wasn't moving and the voice was muffled. It sounded like his voice was coming from the back of Quirrell's head or something else," Harry shook off the notion as ridiculous, yet he still couldn't shake off the odd feeling of it all.

"You actually talked to You-Know-Who? That is so exciting! What was he like?" asked Hermione. She seemed unnaturally curious.

Harry shrugged off the weirdness of the questions. He figured Hermione would be more spiteful towards a wizard who hated her kind.

"Actually, it was enlightening. He told me a lot of things that made sense, and I don't know what to think of it all," Harry remarked truthfully.

"What did he say?" Hermione asked.

Harry deeply wanted to tell her, but a lot of it wasn't his information to tell. And if he did, he wasn't sure Hermione would want to be his friend any longer. Sighing, Harry replied, "I can't say Hermione. I need some time to think this through myself. I just don't know what to think about everything. I come into this new world being told one thing, and then hearing another story that makes so much more sense."

Hermione frowned. If there was one thing she hated it was people withholding knowledge from her. She almost opened her mouth again to try to convince Harry to tell her when she snapped it shut. 'Harry will tell me in his own time' she decided.

They continued to chat about inconsequential things for a couple of minutes before the duo lapsed into a peaceful silence, both pondering different things.

The turmoil inside of Harry was reaching a boiling point, and he didn't know what to do. The wizarding world was always saying one thing or another about the evil that was Voldemort, yet when Harry met the wizard himself he saw a revolutionary; a man who wanted to make his internal world a reality. What made Voldemort a bad man? Was it the fact that he killed people to achieve his goals, or was it because he had lost? It is always the winners that decide what gets written down in history, and if Voldemort had emerged victorious Harry was sure that the world would be a different place. Voldemort didn't seem to be a man who spited the world, well, he hated the muggles but with good reason. The only muggles Harry ever encountered were the Dursley's and the kids at his primary school.

It seemed to Harry that the kids at his school were almost as bad to him as the Dursley's. They stood by and watched with morbid curiosity as Dudley would pummel the 'freaks' head in. Their faces as they stood by hurt him more than any punch could. No one would rise to his defense. They just stood there. Watching.

Yet Voldemort's ideals seemed so radical. He saw how magic made people better; superior even. Yet, muggleborns possessed magic, and yet their parents were the cause of Voldemort's ire? Why did being a muggleborn make a difference?

Harry had so many burning questions that desired answers, yet he had no clue how to get to Voldemort for his answers. All Harry had been told was that Voldemort would find him.

Yet Harry had a little part of his mind that was convince Voldemort wasn't coming for him. He would arrive at the Dursley's, and be forced to endure the beatings again.

That thought terrified him. He didn't want to go back, yet he knew he had no other option. Dumbledore would just turn the twinkle on bright and use his condescending 'grandfather knows best' persona and send him right back.

Hermione on the other hand, was contemplating the wizard Voldemort.

Most books barely mentioned him. Apparently the taboo on speaking his name also transferred over to literature. He was mentioned in all the books that Harry was mentioned in, but it was always within the same paragraph as Harry.

It seemed to her at least that it was some form of protection. Like mentioning Harry with Voldemort wasn't as bad. 'Well, to me at least the whole thing is completely pointless,' thought Hermione.

In the midst of their companionable silence, a loud noise erupted from the entrance of the Hospital Wing. Startled the two teens looked at the entrance to see Ron standing over a case of broken potion vials that he had stumbled over.

Ron smiled sheepishly at the two of them. Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered under her breathe, "Idiot."

Harry barely caught what she said and smiled and winked at her. She blushed from embarrassment from Harry overhearing what she had muttered.

The two turned to look back at Ron standing over the case with a panicked look saying, "Reparo, Reparo! Reparo damn you!"

Hermione and Harry started to burst out into tears of laughter at Ron's predicament. Ron turned crimson with anger at being the source of laughter and turned his anger on Hermione.

"Yeah? Well, at least I'm not a stupid mudblood!" said Ron triumphantly. He smiled at his supposed ingenious before he realized what he had said. Hermione stood confused, wonder what mudblood meant.

Harry however felt his blood run cold. He muttered in a chilly voice, "What did you just say?"

Ron sputtered, "Look I-"

He didn't get another word off as Harry's magic began to radiate off of him. Deep emerald green seemed to flow off of him in small waves. The color seemed powerful, yet it was sinister, sentient. In his cold fury Harry's magic lashed out at the source. Normally it would have felt like a mild sting, yet when Ron was standing over a crate full of volatile mixtures of who knows what potions, and they were all drenched in Ron's magic from his failed Reparo spell.

Harry's magic ignited the volatile compound and caused a miniature explosion that propelled Ron several feet out the door and crashing against the opposite wall. Hogwarts' wards absorbed the explosion in the milliseconds after it had happened, and it left Harry and Hermione standing there in shock.

Harry felt a righteous feeling pass through him after he had shown Ronald his place. He was already mad at the boy for his family's deception, and this was the perfect way for him to vent his frustration.

Hermione stood in shocked confusion, and yet she was hurt. From the way that Harry had reacted she had assumed correctly that Ron's words were exceptionally cruel.

"Goodbye Weasley. Consider our friendship terminated," said Harry. Ron started to get off of the ground and looked at Harry with a fearful expression when Harry cast a weak banishing spell at the door, slamming it shut.

"I can't stand that idiot," said Harry.

"What's going on Harry? What did that word mean? Why do you hate him all of the sudden?" said Hermione.

"Ron called you a mudblood. It's a slang term meaning one of dirty blood. It is an insult on muggleborns by wizards of wizarding heritage to put down those born from muggles," explained Harry."

Hermione was mildly hurt. She had hoped that after the adventure that they had just went on that Ron would grow up and decide to work on being her friend instead of a prat. She shrugged, his loss was her gain. Maybe she could expand her horizons a bit now that Ron wasn't there to play prison warden and block anyone's attempts at friendship.

The two sat in the hospital wing talking about pointless things when Madam Pomfrey showed up and shooed Hermione out of the wing so that Harry could get some rest.

"Bye Harry," said Hermione.

"Bye Hermione," replied Harry. As she walked out of the room Harry couldn't help but admire her rather nice butt. Harry shook his head. Since when did he think Hermione, or in that case, any girl have a nice butt?

Mind muddled by thoughts of his conversation with Tom mixed in with flashes of Hermione's curvy behind flashing through his mind, Harry drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Hermione made her way back through the steadily darkening corridors on her way back to the common room in Gryffindor Tower. Thoughts overrun with thoughts of Harry's green eyes made their way unbidden to the forefront of her mind. She shook her head, trying to get those eyes out of her mind.

It had taken Hermione a good couple of months after Harry's stellar rescue to push aside her crush on her best friend. She hadn't thought that she would ever be able to convince herself that she wasn't falling for the green-eyed hero. Finally around the start of spring she stubbornly forced thoughts of Harry out of her mind and she began to focus on her schooling more.

When they had made their way through the tasks set aside to defend the Sorcerer's Stone, Hermione began to rethink her self-imposed shield that she had placed between herself and Harry. She had nearly spilled her guts to Harry during the potion challenge set up by Professor Snape, when her courage failed her.

'So much for Gryffindor courage,' she thought with a dry chuckle.

She reached the common room and gave the password to the Fat Lady and made her way in. Ron was sitting on the couch, and his skin was slightly purplish with a mixture of green along his right cheek. Suppressing a chuckle at the aftereffects of the potion, Hermione weaved her way through the students and up the girl's staircase to her room.

She walked in and pulled back her sheets of the bed and crawled in; neglecting to even remove her clothes and putting on her night clothes.

For the millionth time, she fell asleep to thoughts of a green eyed Gryffindor seeker.

The sun dawned bright and early at Hogwarts, throwing a golden sheen across the dew covered grass. Students were up and cheerfully making their way down to breakfast to eat their favorite Hogwarts meal.

Hermione however, stood eagerly in the hospital wing waiting for Harry to be released. The boy had been dressed and eager to go, but Pomfrey had stopped him and demanded he lay down. With much begging and pleading with those gorgeous green eyes, Harry had been able to convince the stern nurse to let him go get breakfast with his best friend after drinking a pepper-up potion.

Ears still slightly smoking from the potion, the duo made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. They sat down next to Neville, who the profusely apologized to for stunning him. The nervous Gryffindor just blushed and shook his head throwing off their apologies with mumbles of, "It's alright."

Harry and Hermione began to discuss the courses and eventually stumbled into Herbology, which tentatively drug Neville out of his shell to offer a couple words here and there. After a couple of minutes the trio was deeply discussing some rare species of plant in Northeast-Asia that was capable of speech. The idea of a plant being able to talk baffled Harry, and Hermione was just excited to be learning something new.

"She looks really cute when she's excited about something," Harry mumbled. Hermione turned to him, blushing brightly and looking surprised.

"Oh goodness, I said that out loud didn't I?" said a deeply blushing Harry.

Completely out of character, Neville broke out in guffaws and started laughing until he cried at the awkward situation.

Harry and Hermione managed to break out of their blushing state when Neville took it upon himself to continue the crusade and kept remarking on how things were 'cute' which would send Harry and Hermione back into varying shades of red.

However, their good mood was shattered when a familiar stuck up ponce showed up to ruin their breakfast.

"Replaced me already did you?" said Ron.

"Yeah, and glad I did too. Neville is a riot," said Harry. Neville blushed while Ron's ears and cheeks blazed red.

"Do us a favor Weasley and leave," said a sneering Hermione. After Harry's explanation yesterday she didn't have any positive emotions relating to this Weasley in particular. Ron opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something and then snapped it shut. He turned and walked over to where Fred and George were. He made to sit, but a remark by Fred or George caused several surrounding people to laugh and Ron to turn crimson again. He stood again and walked down to the end of the table where Percy was too busy polishing his prefect badge to notice his brother sitting next to him.

Harry sighed and looked at his two friends saying, "Well, Weasley sure does know how to kill a conversation. Maybe because he's poor, or is it because I forgot to mention how my father would hear about this?"

The last sentence was said in a remarkably good Draco Malfoy impression that sent the three of them back into laughter. The finished their breakfast while picking up on their last conversation, and Neville said 'cute' again. Harry and Hermione locked eyes and Harry lowered his face to a crook in his arms with a groan saying, "Please Neville have mercy on a poor guy."

Neville's laughter boomed around him, and through his tears of laughter Neville said, "Can't mate. It was just too funny!"

The three of them wrapped up their meals and walked off to Transfiguration for one of the last classes of the year. That night would mark the end of the year feast, and Harry was excited to be wrapping up the year even though the idea of returning to the Dursley's held no appeal at all.

"Good afternoon class, since today is the last day of class I have come up with a good exercise that will also double as fun. We will be returning to basic transfiguration where you learned to turn a match into a needle. I believe Professor Flitwick mentioned that you learned banishing charms correct?"

The class replied with eager nods, wondering where this was going.

"Well then, you will all be banishing your needles at those scoreboards over there. Each student has five needles to use, and I stress this one thing; one person at a time. For those of you who are muggleborn this is quite similar to darts. The person with the highest score gets a small prize from me."

Excitedly the students began to chatter with their friends while they lined up to take their turn at the game.

"Harry?" said a familiar voice.

Harry turned a bright red color; he had known this was coming ever since he had slipped at lunch earlier.

"Yeah Hermione?" said Harry.

"Did you really mean what you said?" asked an equally red and nervous Hermione.

"Uh, um… Yeah I did. I'm sorry if that makes you feel weird Hermione," said a nervous Harry.

"No! I mean, no; of course not. Thank you," said Hermione. She leaned the foot distance between them forward and gave Harry a light kiss on the cheek. Harry stood shocked. He could feel the pleasant tingle from the skin that Hermione's lips had touched still singing through his mind.

Hermione giggled lightly from Harry's star struck expression before it was her turn at the board. She did decently well, and took the lead in the class with a score of forty-five.

A stunned Harry went next, and he barely realized what he was doing when he just banished all of his needles forward at once. The rocketed forward from his palm and slammed into the scoreboard. He barely realized that he had scored a seventy-two. Having four of his needles landing right in the middle of the twenty five zone.

His face still tingling, he went and took his seat with an enormous grin on his face. Hermione took her seat next to him as the rest of the class went through their turns at the dart board, and then all eventually sat down.

"Congratulations Mr. Potter, you won. Mr. Potter? Mr. Potter! Mr. Potter please stop grinning like a buffoon and look at me please!" McGonagall finally caught his eye and he quickly averted his eyes and he met Hermione's. The two of them blushed and looked away simultaneously.

'Hmmm… I believe Filius owes me five galleons,' thought McGonagall.

"Now Mr. Potter you have won yourself ten extra credit points. The rest of the class earns two," said the Professor.

Normally Hermione would be jealous over the loss of so many points, but she just couldn't find it in herself to care. She had just kissed Harry! She smiled giddily and the class took impossibly long to finish.

Finally the class was dismissed to go to wherever they needed to and Hermione and Harry walked to Charms. The two of them kept brushing hands and blushing. They finally arrived at the door of the Charms classroom and took their regular seats next to each other.

Professor Flitwick appeared from his side door and began his walk up his stack of books until he reached the podium he stood on.

"Hello class! It had been my privilege to teach such fine and intelligent individuals. I must say that I look forward to your return next year and I hope that you all have a wonderful summer break. For today however, you have no work. Just sit back and relax, or practice some spellwork!" said the Professor.

At this announcement Neville moved up to sit behind the two teens and they struck up a conversation.

"So how are you two holding up? You just disappeared that night," said Neville.

"I think we are doing well. I'm feeling loads better mate," said Harry. Hermione nodded, agreeing with Harry.

The three of them talked about pointless things, and the conversations was half-hearted at most. Each of them was distracted for their own reasons.

Harry was thinking about Hermione's kiss, still, Hermione was thinking about kissing Harry on the cheek and the end of the year, and Neville was thinking about the conversation they were having.

Finally, the bell rang and the group made their way to the feast that would bring about the end of their first year of Hogwarts. Now that it was approaching the end, Harry wasn't too excited about leaving now. He was going to miss this place that meant so much to him.

They took their seats at the Gryffindor table awaiting the start of the feast. The hall was decorated in Slytherin colors, showing off Slytherin's many years of consecutive wins over the house cup.

The group sat in silence eating on the appetizers arrayed around the table awaiting Dumbledore's end of the year speech.

They were not disappointed, and the grim face of Dumbledore appeared at the head table to give his speech to the children.

"Could I have your attention please? Thank you. First of all, I have some grave news. It has been reported that Lord Voldemort has returned. He has recovered the fabled Sorcerer's Stone and has used it to create a new body. So when you all return to your homes for the summer months, I strongly urge each and every one of you to exercise extreme caution in the coming months. If anything looks suspicious please contact the Aurors or the muggle police. I must stress upon each and every one of you the danger that is Lord Voldemort.

"He is not a man to be trusted, and if he approaches you make every attempt possible to escape as quickly as possible. Now, do not let this ruin you end of year feast. Eat up!"

And with that the standard array of dishes that signified the end of the year appeared on the table. The students helped themselves to the food and began to eat.

"Voldemort is back?" said Hermione.

"I guess he is," replied Harry.

BOOM! A loud gunshot like noise echoed through the hall. The students fell silent and Dumbledore was on his feet, eyes flickering back and forth before he muttered a single word, "Tom."

"Hello Dumbledore. As you know I have made my way back into the realm of the living, but I have an important business opportunity to discuss with you. And no, I am not inside of your precious castle; I am outside of the wards."

Dumbledore said, "Students! Remain calm. I will be back shortly. Minerva, lock the doors and bring up the siege wards after I leave."

With this Dumbledore left the Great Hall with his magic flowing around him in light blue waves. As he marched out of the door with Minerva on his tail he gazed out onto the grounds as the doors locked with a resounding boom. The wards went up without a problem.

Through the bright sunlight Dumbledore looked for Voldemort, and saw no one. His face went pale as he realized what Voldemort had done.

"You see Dumbledore? Your wards didn't register me as entering the grounds for one little reason. I never left. I've spent the last night in this convenient little room that turns into whatever you want it to. But I digress. You see, I'm telling you my terms of peace. I am going to take Harry Potter. If Mr. Potter does anything to attempt to escape, I will destroy the wizarding world. If you attempt to take Harry from me I will destroy the wizarding world. And, I give you my word on my magic that Mr. Potter will come to no harm from my hand or any servant of mine to my knowledge. As long as Mr. Potter is in my custody the wizarding world, as well as the mundane world will come to no harm from my hand. So here are the terms, in exchange for Harry Potter I will give the world peace. Do you accept?"

This was the last thing Dumbledore had come to expect. Harry would survive, and the world would have peace. This was for the greater good. Voldemort was in his school where he could not reach him because of the siege wards and he was around his students. His students were in jeopardy.

Dumbledore let out a shuttering breath.

"I accept your terms."

Dumbledore's magic flared as well as Voldemort's.

Hermione turned to look at her friend in fear. Hermione was almost as scared by the look Harry gave her. He knew this was coming. He squeezed her hand and kissed her lightly on the lips. It was bittersweet at best. Hermione couldn't enjoy what she had wanted for so long because she was losing the man so important to her. Harry stood and walked towards Voldemort as he stood in the hall.

Was this what he wanted? Did he want to learn? So many emotions, thoughts, and insecurities flashed through his mind as he took those steps. As he reached Voldemort, Voldemort held out his hand.

Harry took it and felt himself being squeezed through a tube. He felt the two of them slam through the wards surrounding Hogwarts; creating a temporary crack in the anti-apparation ward.

Harry felt his feet hit solid ground again as he reoriented himself and looked around.

"Welcome to your home Harry. Welcome to Riddle Manor."

A/N: Please review guys. I appreciate quality reviews telling me what you think, be it positive or negative. If you have questions either PM me or review.

However, I do have one serious question? Who should Harry date? He will pair with Daphne in the end, but the top three GIRLS that I am told to pair him with will be the girls he dates before he settles with Daphne. Drop me a review and I will calculate the results.